The free culture movement is abuzz today over news that ASCAP has requested their members to fight organizations like Creative Commons, Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation over what it claims as an effort to undermine copyright.

ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), according to ASCAP member Mike Rugnetta, has sent a letter out asking its members to send donations that would go to fighting organizations like Creative Commons, the EFF, Public Knowledge and other supporters of the free culture movement. He posted the letter to prove it (Part 1, part 2).

“At this moment,” the letter says, “we are facing our biggest challenge ever. Many forces including Creative Commons, Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation and technology companies with deep pockets are mobilizing to promote “Copyleft” in order to undermine our “Copyright.” They say they are advocates of consumer rights, but the truth in these groups simply do not want to pay for the use of our music. Their mission is to spread the word that our music should be free.”

The letter continues, “This is why your help now is vital. We fear that our opponents are influencing Congress against the interests of music creators. If their views are allowed to gain strength, music creators will find it harder and harder to make a living as traditional media shifts to online and wireless services. We all know what will happen next: the music will dry up, and the ultimate loser will be the music consumer.”

Oh fuck off, you asshats. It’s just the current music distributors, and organizations like ASCAP, RIAA and MPAA that will die. Music will be just fine, and probably be even better of without parasites like you.

The remote-wipe capability that Google recently invoked to remove a harmless application from some Android phones isn’t the only remote control feature that the company built into its mobile OS. It turns out that Android also includes a feature that enables Google to remotely install apps on users’ phones as well.

So if you’ve bought an Android because Apple has too much control over the iPhone, you’ve been had.

Let the best fruit win, and when it does, we’ll know how to ask for it. ‘The European Community requires that grapes, oranges, apples and pears be identified by variety at the point of sale, and the practice is common there for other fruits too.’ ‘Until 2006, the California Tree Fruit Agreement, the organization that sets standards for the state’s shippers of peaches, nectarines and plums, required the specific variety to be identified on the carton. But some growers and shippers found that they could not readily market certain varieties perceived by buyers as inferior, and so the CTFA now allows fruit to be shipped under generic designations such as “yellow peach.””When inferior varieties are marketed generically, producers of inferior varieties piggyback on producers of better varieties. In a pomological version of Gresham’s law, bad fruit drives out good.”All too often today, new varieties are bred to appeal to the lowest common denominator, to be inoffensive to the greatest number of people, so it suits the industrial distribution system when fruit is marketed anonymously. When fruit quality is homogenized, variety is less significant; in turn, anonymity deprives consumers of their main weapon to resist homogenization.’

Trust that the mass market crap is crap and find local producers/distributors you can trust.

I remember a brittish kid was arrested for something similar some years ago, and was caned. The media then covered what being ‘caned’ in Singapore actually means. In short, it is way way way worse than what it sounds like (being hit with a stick) – it is mutilating and unbelievably painful. I was horrified, and doubt I will ever visit a country that uses medieval methods like this. No matter what crime was committed, there simply cannot be a justification for treating people that way.

Ah, I stand corrected, a US citizen. Albeit wikipedia states the result of the caning wasn’t as bad, I stand by my point that it is medieval, and any country thinking this is an effective way to secure order is medieval in it’s thinking – and best avoided.

Nearly halfway through the month-long 2010 World Cup Tournament in South Africa, over a dozen teams have been eliminated from the original group of 32, with the Round of 16 beginning tomorrow, June 26th. Television and web viewership has been setting records all over the world as supporters tune in to watch the events in South Africa and react along with the fans and players in the stadiums as they celebrate their wins and suffer through losses. Collected here are recent photos from the 2010 World Cup, as some of the players and their supporters have been experiencing it – in South Africa and around the globe. (43 photos total)

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Photographers gather in front of Argentina’s coach Diego Maradona as he sings the national anthem before the 2010 World Cup Group B soccer match against Greece at Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane June 22, 2010. (REUTERS/David Gray) #